Maintaining Weight Loss: There's No Going Back

Maintaining Weight Loss: There's No Going Back

Maintaining weight loss is just as important as losing weight. Reaching your goal weight is certainly difficult, but keeping that weight off is a challenge on its own. If you want to maintain your weight loss, the most important thing you need to know is that you cannot go back to your old lifestyle. You're going to have to make adjustments to your diet and incorporate physical activity into your routine so you can keep your slender figure. Here are some more helpful guidelines to help you keep the weight off.

Start with Small Changes

In order to successfully change your lifestyle, it's helpful to start with small steps. It probably took years for you to develop the habits that you have today, so you cannot expect to change them overnight. Make the transition easier by beginning with small changes. For instance, if you used to skip breakfast, make the resolution that you will start your day with a healthy meal from now on. If you used to order fatty side dishes like French fries, start ordering healthier side dishes like baked beans or a salad. As you go along, you can add more changes to your lifestyle.

Keep Yourself Motivated

Keeping weight gain at bay is a life-long challenge, one that ideally becomes easier with time. Accept the fact that there will be times when you might want to go back to your old lifestyle. For instance, you might become tempted to reach for a tub of ice cream when you're feeling stressed, because eating always helped you calm down in the past. Or perhaps you might start losing your motivation to exercise when you get home from a tiring day at work. During these times when you find yourself losing your resolve, it's important to retrieve your motivation. You can do this in several ways. One way is to list down all the benefits of your weight loss or how your weight loss has made your life better. Refer to this list every now and then to strengthen your will.

Keep Track of Your Weight with a Journal

Keeping a journal is another helpful way of maintaining weight loss. Some of the things that you should regularly write in your weight journal are: foods you eat, sizes of portions, time and place, etc. It's also important to record your weekly weight. If you happen to be an emotional eater (someone who eats to cope with negative feelings) then you should also write down your emotional state whenever you eat. Keeping a journal will help you keep track of your progress and will help you detect problems immediately.

Exercise Regularly

No matter how much you hate the idea of exercising, you need to accept the fact that you need regular physical activity in order to maintain your weight loss. If you have a busy schedule, try to set aside time that you will dedicate to exercise and make sure you go through with it. Incorporating exercise into your daily life is also helpful. Learn some desk exercises that you can do at work. Take the stairs every time instead of the elevator. Go for an evening walk every night after dinner. These small efforts can contribute a lot to your weight loss maintenance.

Kashif Ansari

Weight loss requires grazing (down to the level where you keep chocolate bars with you and take a bite or two each 15 minutes) and an attitude of looking for opportunities to exercise. Instead of being a lazybones and avoiding even getting off your fat butt you choose to stand since it burns more calories and walk here and there and stay active as a squirrel. I’ll let you in n a secret: the word “thin” contains within its subtext two words: “things” and “in”. It’s the things you do in-side of your daily chores ( I mean in addition to the normal everyday chores by extra-effort micro-movements) that count towards slimming you down.